Wednesday, November 04, 2009

When I was 17/18 I was asked to be in the "Dairy Princess Pageant". Since then as now Ia) can't say no.....andb) am always up for a new experience...

I said yes. I've never been what one would call a fashion plate. As a child and pre-teen I just let Penee pick out my clothes. What did I care what I put on? By high school I had more of an opinion, but in general I was just a lazy shopper. I remember needing a formal dress for the pageant and going with Penee to find one.

I hated this dress. We looked at many different dresses and Penee loved this one. From equal parts not having the energy to fight and being too lazy to continue on to find a more promising gown, this is what we went with.

Here's the thing, I made this dress work. It's not that the dress doesn't have a certain charm. Just ask "Thoroughly Modern Millie", it's eerily similar to her wedding dress, that is if you wear the shoulder puffs as a hat......but I digress.

I just decided to work with what I had. I pretended like I was the prettiest girl at the ball with the prettiest dress. The truth is, but for a botched answer about the recommended daily serving of milk (the USDA said 4, the dairy council disagreed with 6). That actual princess title could have been mine!

Life for me sometimes seems to be like this pageant. There seems to be a lull and then a build up to what seems like a "big" event. The event ends up being just a brief moment really, although it doesn't always feel that way at the time. Sometimes I'm not completely in love with the pieces of myself that I've brought to the event. I usually find that I wish I'd prepared better, or done something different that would make me better in the situation. Unfortunately time doesn't stop for me to get more prepared, or for me to be a more perfect version of myself.

Regardless of my level of preparation or lack thereof, I get to decide how I will handle each challenge. Will I just dwell on all that I don't have or will I take what I do have and make of it the best it can be? I take comfort in the fact that unlike with the pageant, one failed answer doesn't stop me from becoming the Princess in my own life.

I think I'm going to try to channel my inner Dairy Princess and decide that in my life I will "Make it work".